Commissioners Corner

By Travis County Precinct 3 Commissioner Gerald Dougherty
This is the final in a series of articles about the role and powers of your County Government. I’m doing this as an effort to enlighten you about what we as your Commissioners Court are mandated to do, what we’re allowed to do if we choose, and what we cannot do because we don’t have the authority to do so.
We’ve learned that counties...

by Travis County Precinct 3 Commissioner Gerald Dougherty
Two of the most important powers of your Commissioners Court that affect all Travis County taxpayers are: (1) set the County’s property tax rate, and (2) approve the County’s budget. August and September are the two busiest months for us as we look at the preliminary budget, conduct budget hearings on additional budget requests, and make...

by Travis County Precinct 3 Commissioner Gerald Dougherty
This is the second in a series of articles in which you’ll find out about the role of county government. Last time I talked about the formation of counties as compared to cities…that counties are created by the state and cities are created by citizens of a local area. We touched on the establishment of the Commissioners Court, qualificat...

by Travis County Precinct 3 Commissioner Gerald Dougherty
What do you know about your Travis County Commissioners Court? What can we do? What can’t we do? What legal authorities and powers does the Court have? What do I do as your County Commissioner? What qualifies me to be your County Commissioner?
This is the first in a series of articles in which I’ll enlighten you about the role of coun...